Baroque Literature and Literary Portraits: Styles, Themes, Authors

Literary Portrait: Definition

Literary portrait is the description of a person made with words. It is produced through the observation of the model, selection of its features, management of those features, and careful expression in language.

Classes by Content

• Physical: reproduces external appearance.
• Moral: describes the subject's psychology and character.
• Portrait: when both physical and moral elements are combined.

Classes by Point of View

• Realistic: the model is reproduced faithfully.
• Idealized: the model is improved or beautified.
• Deformed/Cartoonish: distorted, burlesque, or satirical intention.

Baroque Literature and Context

The Baroque is a cultural movement that emerged in the late 16th and 17th centuries. It developed distinctive features that both define and oppose previous aesthetic norms. The movement arose in part from a pervasive feeling of instability as societies faced profound crises.

Factors of the Crisis

• Costly wars and political decisions by rulers that drained the country.
• Economic impoverishment and growing social inequalities.
• Exacerbated racial and religious conflicts.
• A general moral degradation felt across society.

Baroque Literary Themes

Baroque literature often underscores disappointment and pessimism. It tends to present a negative vision of life, the world, and humanity, with a pronounced concern for the transience of life.

Attitude of Writers

Writers reacted in diverse ways: some became defenders of the established order, while others sought escape or expressed their criticism through various literary strategies.

The Baroque Style

The Baroque style is often artificial and exaggerated, and it generally unfolds along two main lines:

• Culteranismo: seeks formal beauty through elaborate language, learned vocabulary, complex syntax, abundant epithets, metaphors, and other rhetorical devices.
• Conceptismo: emphasizes conceptual density, brevity, and sharp, concise expression of content and ideas.

Luis de Góngora

Luis de Góngora (born in 1561 in Córdoba) was a priest who served as a chaplain to the king. His temperament and style earned him enemies at court. Many of his poems express disillusionment with life, following an outpouring of idealism and poetic beauty. He often used a low, sententious tone in some approaches and incorporated many learned words from Latin, abundant epithets, metaphors, and other literary figures to enrich his style.

Góngora wrote numerous short poems and two major long works at maturity: Soledades (The Solitudes) and the Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea (Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea).

Francisco de Quevedo

Francisco de Quevedo (born in Madrid in 1580) was a man of extensive culture who held important positions at court. Intrigues, however, led to his exile and imprisonment. He is characterized by the originality and richness of his style known as conceptismo.

Quevedo used expressive and varied language to highlight poetic content. His poetry can be separated into three groups:

• Philosophical poems that address problems of existence.
• Love poems that express the passion of love.
• Satire criticizing vices and social customs.

His prose includes political treatises, ascetic works, pamphlets, and a satirical picaresque novel.